Thursday, March 28, 2002

by the Wunderland Toast Society

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• GinohnNews - Oscar Grouch (plus Pat and Paul)
• The Ember Update - Yay!, Portland Travelogue, Outrageous and offensive (at first), Work News
• Renee has updated her pages
• Rash is updating the Rash.log again
• Ginohn put up their 200th tombstone
• Bonus HMRs: Showtime and the Academy Awards

Well, we're back from the GAMA Trade Show and we had an absolutely marvelous time. Of course, it was a lot of work (setting up and staffing a booth like this ain't exactly trivial) but we had so much fun that it hardly seemed like work at all. Everywhere we went, retailers at various levels in the industry made a point of telling us how well our products sell, and how much they personally love our games. And with all the free stuff we were giving out, it felt like we were handing out candy on Halloween! Plus it was in Vegas, which I always find to be a fun place to visit, even though I don't gamble. Oh, and we were featured on a local TV news show!

Here's what we were giving away this time:

• First, we were offering our "Gone Looney" ribbons to anyone who wanted to add it to their badge. Lots of people wanted them, and as the show went on it became a great means for us to know who'd been to our booth yet (and who hadn't).
• Similarly, we were giving little "Are You a Werewolf?" pins to anyone who wanted one, and these too were very popular, particularly when we pointed out that we'd give you a free copy of the product if you'd put the button on and wear it for the remainder of the show.
• Our new all-purpose literature/catalog envelopes worked out really nicely, and naturally, we were giving these away to everyone we could get to take them. They contained not only our catalog (in all three flavors) but also, a new retailer newsletter we created, called "What's Cookin'," which is a shortened version of material from our What's On the Stove? webpage.
• Finally, we were giving away sample Icehouse pieces and copies of Playing with Pyramids to everyone who placed an order for our beautiful new Looney Games display.

Although the new displays haven't yet shipped, we had a near-final prototype from the box maker who'll be manufacturing them for us, and our retailers absolutely loved it. We're really excited about getting these into stores!

And as if everything weren't already going so well, we were also on TV! On the second morning of the show, the local FOX affiliate TV station did a series of live feeds from the floor of the GTS Trade Show, and we were one of just three companies selected for this honor. (The exhibit hall was otherwise completely empty during the filming of the TV spots, since this was a morning show and the hall didn't open until 12:30.)

We got almost 3 minutes of air-time, and I thought it went really well. A lot of people saw it, too... for the next couple of days, we kept running into people at the show who told us they'd seen us on TV during breakfast. Of course, we didn't get to see it ourselves until much later, but when we got home, we received a tape of the spot that Kristin had ordered (from a company called TV Monitoring Services) and I think we looked pretty good. (We're working on getting it digitized... and hopefully we'll be putting up a QuickTime of it soon.)

The three of us were joined on this mission by Kory, who came along mainly to further his career as an independent game designer, but who also helped us out in various ways all through the event. Thanks Kory! Oh, and thanks also to my Dad, for the emergency taxi service to the airport! (There's nothing quite like the panic you feel when your van breaks down on your way to the airport, particularly when you have so much luggage it won't fit into any vehicle smaller than a van... especially when it's 6 am and it's cold and rainy.)

As is becoming a tradition for me on these trips, I spent one evening just wandering around Vegas on my own, checking out various scenes. This year, I had a particular mission in mind, but unfortunately it turned out to be one of the only real disappointments of the week. I retraced many of the steps I took last year in order to check out the new Venus Lounge at the Venetian, which I'd heard had been designed by Shag, an artist whose work I really dig. But they wouldn't let me in! Posted outside the great looking entrance was a sign reading "Private Party," and because of it, the bouncer guy at the door refused to let me in for more than a peek at the Shag mural in the foyer. "We'll be open to the public at 11:30," he offered helpfully as I left.

But I couldn't just hang around there for 3 hours. By 11:30, I was more than a monorail's ride away, on the street outside the MGM-Grand, where, surprisingly enough, I happened to run into Nathan and Jesse, the Morton's List guys! We wandered about together for awhile, checking out the New York New York casino and comparing notes on the hooker "trading card game" people were giving away cards for on the streets of this bizarre city; but when they decided to go off in search of the Freemont Street Experience, I realized it was late enough for the $3 Steak-n-Eggs Graveyard Special at the Orleans, so I got into a different cab and went back to the casino that is our home-away-from-home during GTS.

When we got back, Alison dug in (literally) to a project she's been planning for quite some time: a "water feature" for our back yard. That's right, she's digging us a pond! It may not look like much yet, but by the time she finishes all the landscaping and planting she has in mind, it will be quite gorgeous.

Happy April Fool's Day!